Frustrated by a lack of informed and honest review websites covering a wide range of electronic music, I write them myself.

Sunday, June 26, 2016

Eurythmics - Touch

RCA: 1983/2005

Sweet Dreams (Are Made Of This) took Eurythmics from the brink of commercial failure to the heights of chart success, literally overnight. Though a little flustered by their sudden fortune, Annie Lennox and David Stewart didn’t rest on their laurels, almost immediately hitting the studio again for the quick follow-up Touch. It’s all that new gear Stewart purchased that spurred them on, cutting-edge toys that offered more creative freedom than ever before. Oh, the wonders of the 24-track machine! That voyetra gizmo wasn’t too shabby either. You bet your bottomed-out dollar the duo felt those creative juices flowing with so many options now available to them.

The resulting album was far more diverse than its predecessor, bolder in its genre explorations while offering hit singles on par with their breakout. Sweet Dreams will forever be considered the definitive Eurythmics song, but the two big cuts off Touch earned them just as much radio play as that one. Who’s That Girl? became a synth-pop anthem for every woman scorned by a promiscuous lover, and earned itself some attention for its gender-bending art. Yep, that’s Lennox on the single’s cover, decked out in fashionable collared shirt and tie, sporting an Elvis wig and a five-o’clock shadow, even kissing her lounge-singer persona at the end of the video. I never realized that until recently, so crafty the costume is! More conventional is the video for Here Comes The Rain Again (truly a West Coast anthem), where Lennox and Stewart wander the cliffs around The Old Man Of Hoy (seaside erosion porn!). The tune, however, shows off that new-fangled 24-track machine by bringing in orchestral support to Eurythmics’ icy-cool, melancholic synth pop. And yes, that’s the London Philharmonic providing the strings, with Michael Kamen conducting no less. Apparently the studio didn’t have enough room to house the orchestra properly, some members playing in hallways. Methinks Stewart’s gonna’ want himself a bigger studio after.

While Sweet Dreams: The Album was mostly forced to stick with a stripped-down, synth heavy style, the increased options for Touch gave Eurythmics more opportunity to try out other genres. This includes Caribbean influenced jams like third single Right By Your Side, dubbier new wave (Regrets; No Fear, No Hate, No Pain (No Broken Hearts)), peppier rock-leaning numbers (Cool Blue, The First Cut) and experimental indulgences like floaty Aqua and Paint A Rumor. This track, also final track on the album, goes well over seven minutes, and runs the gamut of synth pop, funk, electro, Arabian, and all manner of manipulation on Lennox’s voice.

As out there as Paint A Rumor is in the Eurythmics discography, it’s nothing compared to the oddities of the b-sides included with the reissue. You Take Some Lentils And You Take Some Rice is all sorts of avante-garde European synth pop, Plus Something Else is a funky instrumental, and ABC (Freeform) sounds like an early Kraftwerk outtake. Other bonuses include a cover of Bowie’s Fame, and… an acoustic version of Who’s That Girl?. Aaugh, real instruments!